105 participants from 26 countries gathered in Oslo to exchange ideas, discuss and explore the present and future of validation. The starting point for the conference was “To implement a high quality validation process – a challenge!”

Conference on validation 2012

105 participants from 26 countries gathered in Oslo to exchange ideas, discuss and explore the present and future of validation. The starting point for the conference was “To implement a high quality validation process – a challenge!”

Workshops 1

International Conference on Validation - The goal was to get a deeper insight into good / learning practice examples, discuss the lessons learned and identify the key learning points. Each session presented two case examples.Examples were selected from the Nordic pilot studies and from projects co-financed by the European Commission.

By the end of the 20th century the internationalisation of the industrial life and society reached its peak. The question of competence got more and more important and the staffs were considered more and more as the most important resource for the companies.

A high number of personal care and social workers are currently mobile across Europe, but the recognition of the competences gained in other contexts (countries, institutions or systems) and learning settings (formal, non-formal, or informal ways of learning) is hardly achievable,

Workshops 2

International Conference on Validation - The goal was to get a deeper insight into good / learning practice examples focusing on system / structure levels, related to the previous plenum session, discuss the lessons learned and identify the key learning points. Each session presented two case examples.

Sabine Wiemann - The VILMA project is based on the experience built in previous EU-funded projects (among which ACT and ACT-NET) and in particular one project dealing with validation of informal learning in European projects and partnerships,

Key-notes - innledninger

Margrethe Hernes - Scepticism is a general challenge to validation, stated Margrethe Hernes, senior adviser at the Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning. Recent surveys show that the institutions of higher education in Norway haven’t yet fully embraced the concept.Åge Hanssen - The Adult Education Act of 1976 gave all adults a right to have their knowledge and skills documented, explained Åge Hanssen, senior adviser at the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, in his presentation on the Norwegian primary and secondary education system.

Dr. Christine Wihak - She once threw her own university diplomas into the flames of her fireplace. It was an action born out of a desperate need to break free of the constraints imposed by the formal education system. Today Dr. Christine Wihak has come to peace with a combination of formal and non-formal education. As she claims, the learning revolution is here.

Martina Ni Cheallaigh: Since the Swedes opened up the perspective from not only being lifelong but also lifewide learning in the year 2000, a lot of work has been done in the EU Commission in this field, Martina Ni Cheallaigh explains. And in 2010, she tells us, validation was revisited.
Martina Ni Cheallaigh: The biggest challenge for validation today is that no budget is foreseen for it, Martina Ni Cheallaigh concludes. - The costs are hidden and we have only anecdotal evidence of the real cost, and this has to be addressed properly.

Plenary session

The Conference was organized by NVL, Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning (Vox), Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training and the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Financial support has been provided by EU and the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Interview´s

UNESCO’s role in the world of validation- Education should make you an autonomous person empowered to make your own choices, states Madhu Singh. She works at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg,